


Everlasting

by magnetgirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reality Show, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 10:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13809642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetgirl/pseuds/magnetgirl
Summary: Emma and Regina participate in a reality competition for David's heart, but things don't quite go to plan.





	Everlasting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheReginaMills](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheReginaMills/gifts).



> Inspired by the return of Lifetime's _unREAL_.

Romance is hard work. A serious business. It's not something that just  _happens_ \- it takes forethought. Plotting. A whole team of designers and directors deciding every detail. Romance isn't easy and it isn't cheap. Romance is magic and magic always comes with a price.

_What's your happy ending?_

Belle takes a deep breath. "I want a challenge." Since childhood she's always looked past the horizon, playacting all the storybooks. Happiness isn't something that arrives, it's something to find. "I want someone who challenges me. A relationship... based on mutual respect but-" The camera closes in on her bright eyes, the flush of her cheeks. "I want to have conversations that last for hours and I want us to be adventurous."

"Travel?" the producer suggests. 

"No… well, yes, but…" But it's not what she meant. "I hope to, to never stop learning," she explains, her eyes dancing. "And I want that in my relationship too. I want to grow old with him, whoever he is, but to never, to never settle." She takes another breath, her smile wide, but soft." I don't want my life to be just one story. And I want to write it together."

* * *

Emma peeks into her assigned room. Like the whole rest of the house, it's somewhat disturbingly pink. And floral. _Girly, I guess_ , she thinks. It's not a word attached to her often. "Hi." 

She wouldn't call the room's current occupant 'girly' either. She's wearing a suit for one, and an air of authority.

"Hello."

Emma waves, nervous, and carries her duffel over to the unoccupied bed. "I guess we're roommates?"

The other woman nods. Emma feels like a child in her presence. She extends a hand.

"Emma."

"Regina." Her grip is strong, commanding. Intimidating. 

Emma drops onto the bed beside her bag.

"Have you ever done this before?"

Regina cocks her head, her hair frames her face perfectly. "Competition dating?"

"Reality tv."

"No."

Emma nods. "Me neither."

Silence grows between them. Awkward. It makes Emma nervous, but Regina doesn't seem to notice. Emma picks at threads on the -- pink, floral, girly -- bedspread.

"I think how it works, we're put together to create drama." Regina raises an eyebrow. Emma shrugs. "Personality clash." To be honest, Emma clashes with most people. But Regina doesn't need to know that. Emma would prefer to make friends. "Their algorithm says we're supposed to hate each other."

"Is that so?"

Emma shrugs again. "It's my understanding."

Regina flashes a smile so bright it makes Emma blush. She loves to thwart expectations.

* * *

_What's your happy ending?_

"I want the fairy tale!" Aurora exclaims in delight. "I want true love."

"What would that be like?"

She looks away, past the camera, her expression dreamy. "Well, he's tall and handsome, and... and so romantic. I know just how it will be," she sighs, "Oh, we'll walk together, and talk together, and just before we say goodbye, he'll take me in his arms, and then..."

"And then?"

Aurora laughs, "That's when I wake up."

"Wake up?"

She nods. "But they say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true, and I've seen him so many times."

* * *

Half the girls have been eliminated, and Emma's doing well in her side bet (with herself, so it doesn't really count, but she has to do something to stay sane in this place). She's good at reading people. Well, most people. Regina's still a mystery. And still here, though Emma's pretty sure David is actually afraid of her. Maybe that's why she's still here.

Emma's not sure why  _she_ 's still here, though. Unless it's because she's so incredibly bad at the entire thing and they need the comic relief. She glances over to the swan boat set up for her upcoming one-on-one with David. A swan boat for Emma Swan. It's so cute she wants to throw up.

"I'm not drunk enough for this," she murmurs. Regina sends her a small smile in response. "I bet you're a fun drunk."

Regina raises an eyebrow. "Why?"

"You're so well put together all the time," Emma explains, "Like to extremely annoying levels."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult."

Emma pulls her lips in over her mouth. "Both?"

"Fair enough," Regina accepts with a nod.

Emma grins. "What's your secret?"

"Hm?"

She leans closer, eyes washing over Regina's silk blouse and feathered hair. "How do you look so perfect all the time?" Their eyes lock as Regina glances over. Emma can't read them, either. "That's a compliment," she assures.

Regina lowers her eyes, uncharacteristically self-conscious. "Thank you."

Emma nods, and at Regina's tentative glance back a blush spreads across her face. It deepens when she realizes her cheeks are warm, and she looks away quickly. An awkward silence grows.

"I have a magic mirror," Regina murmurs after a long beat.

Emma blinks. "What?" She must have misheard. 

But Regina pulls out her phone. She opens an app with a swift press, takes a selfie and turns the screen towards Emma. Her - perfect, regal - countenance is outlined in gold letters spelling _The Fairest of Them All_. 

Emma falls into wide eyed giggles. "That is…"

"A childish crutch," Regina completes, that flash of self-consciousness reappearing. Emma realizes it's always there, well-hidden, and quite suddenly Regina isn't such a mystery. And if she's opening up to Emma it means, maybe, they're becoming friends.

"Not if it works," she counters with a shy smile.

Regina turns the camera-phone on Emma and click. They lean over to look at the 'magic mirror' and laugh together.

A bell chimes, indicating David and Mary Margaret's date has ended and it's Emma's turn. But a glance tells them both David has little interest in moving on. Regina sets her phone aside with a sigh. "Of course, the prince has only had eyes for one princess this whole game."

Emma places a hand on her shoulder.

"Doesn't mean your prince isn't out there."

* * *

_What's your happy ending?_

Mary Margaret's eyes shine. "I don't need a castle or fanfare or…" She nods at the opulence that surrounds them. "All this. It's _beautiful_ ," she clarifies, "But it's not... It doesn't represent me."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to be the kind of princess who waits around for her prince to whisk her away, rescue her from her boring life." A  small laugh. "My life isn't boring. I'm a teacher, and I…" She smiles. "Well, anyway, I think everyone deserves a happy ending no matter who they are."

Mary Margaret looks up to the sky, and then glances to David, her prince. "My happy ending is … love. Wherever we end up and whoever we end up being, as long as we're together… that's my happy ending."

* * *

Final five. Emma's is now certain she's here as the Lovable Train Wreck. Regina is the Queen Bee Villain, Belle the Beautiful Bookworm, Aurora the Breathless Ingenue, and Mary Margaret, well she's the winner. 

"Do you believe in happy ever after?"

Regina glances to Emma, leaning against the gazebo in the shadow of David and Mary Margaret's True Love. "I used to."

"What happened?"

Silence grows between them. 

Emma pulls her lips in over her teeth. "Sorry."

"I grew up," Regina answers, almost too quiet to hear.

Emma nods. She understands. Regina crosses her arms, hugging herself close.

"Would you choose a perfect love that doesn't last, or a comfortable life that doesn't include love?"

"Love is overrated," Emma answers with a shrug. 

Regina's eyes narrow. "Do you believe that?"

Emma swallows. "I guess I don't really know."

Regina reaches for her hand, closes hers over it, in comfort and camaraderie.

* * *

_What's your happy ending?_

"I've never really thought about it." Emma's whole body is tense.

"Why?"

"I don't know." She shrugs. "I - I never had time for that kind of stuff."

"You grew up in foster care."

"Yeah." She crosses her arms, chews on her bottom lip.

"What did you want then?"

Emma scowls. She hates the question, because the answer hurts. "A family. I wanted to belong to someone. I wanted…"

She grows quiet, waits for the question that doesn't come. They're waiting for her. She sighs. 

"I wanted someone to choose me." She looks directly at the camera, eyes flashing, with anger, with pain. "I guess that's how I ended up here."

* * *

David and Mary Margaret laugh from their perch by the water. Emma and Regina share a look, watching from the beach.

"I don't know why they're dragging this out."

"Contractual obligation," Regina quips.

Emma smiles. "What are you going to do when all this is done?" She draws a hand through the sand.

"Go home."

"Where's home?"

Regina smiles, with pride. "Storybrooke, Maine."

Emma makes a face. "That's not a real place."

"Of course it is," Regina laughs. "It is!"

Emma flicks sand at her friend, Regina ducks and they both fall back into the dune, laughter filling the night.

"Look."

Emma feels Regina tense beside her. "What?"

Regina points. Emma raises her eyes to the sky, to the streaks of falling stars. "Make a wish," Regina whispers, and closes her eyes.

Emma leans over to brush her lips. 

* * *

_What's your happy ending?_

"I've been thinking about this a great deal." Regina straightens her shoulders. "I came here to win. Not to fall in love. To win. I thought - I thought that _that_ ," she opens her hands, "that _this_ , would be my happy ending."

"Winning?"

She nods. "Proving that I am the best choice. That I am the queen of the ball, the most beautiful, most charming, most…" Her lips curl into a smile. "Important."

"Has that changed?"

Regina looks past the producer, past the camera, past the scenery, past all of it. Past all the romance she finds Emma, standing, waiting, with that funny little sideways smile on her face. "Yes," she answers, breathless.

"How?"

Regina smiles. "I fell in love."

**Author's Note:**

> Aurora's happy ending is a direct quote from Disney's _Sleeping Beauty_.


End file.
